This invention relates generally to artificial eyes, and more particularly to realistic artificial eyes suitable for use in dolls that replicate human beings, animals and other creatures such as dinosaurs, aliens, monsters, and the like.
Society has seen an evolution of technology in a wide variety of industries, including the toy industry. This evolution in technology is quite apparent in several sectors of the toy industry. For example, technological enhancements have made video games more realistic and lifelike than anyone could have imagined ten years ago. Technological enhancements have also affected other sectors of the toy industry in more subtle ways. For example, board games now come with video displays on a regular basis, baseballs can measure their own velocities when thrown, and dolls can now speak, walk, and even roller skate. Many of these product enhancements have been driven by customer demand. As technology continues to improve, customers want toys that have more capabilities or that are more realistic.
One example of customer driven evolutions in the industry is found in the toys embodied as creatures, animals, dolls and various other life forms real or imagined. Dolls, despite their simplicity, have long been among the most popular toys, especially among younger children. Dolls, however, are not immune to customer demands. As such, customers have continually demanded a more lifelike doll. Therefore, dolls have become more realistic as technologies that have applications in the doll industry have evolved. As alluded to earlier, dolls now have enhanced movement and speaking capabilities that tend to make the doll seem more realistic and lifelike.
One important influence technological advancements have on the doll industry is seen in the development of dolls"" eyes, which have evolved quite dramatically. Initially, dolls"" eyes began as a pair of xe2x80x9cX""sxe2x80x9d sewn on the face of the doll or as pieces of fabric sewn on the face of the doll. Then, as buttons became less expensive, buttons were used as the eyes. As technologies relating to plastics became less expensive, companies began manufacturing operations that were dedicated solely to the production of plastic eyes. True plastic eyes, opposed to buttons, began as round or oval-shaped pieces of white plastic with details such as a pupil painted on it. With advancements in clear plastics, the eyes of dolls became more realistic. One of the first developments in this field of clear plastic eyes relates to what is known as xe2x80x9cmovable eyes.xe2x80x9d Movable eyes have a clear plastic dome over a piece of white plastic to entrap a moveable piece of black plastic. The piece of black plastic trapped between the dome and the white plastic was supposed to represent a pupil. Although these moveable eyes were an advancement over the previous eyes, they were not very lifelike. Therefore, development continued towards creating more realistic, low cost eyes.
Some of the more recent developments in clear plastic doll eyes relate to hemispherical and semi-spherical shaped eyes. With regard to clear plastic eyes, many variations have developed for representing the pupil and the iris. Some conventional eyeballs have the pupil and iris painted onto a flat back surface of the hemisphere, while others use stickers or emblems instead of paint. Yet other conventional eyeballs, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,776 issued to Suzuki, insert mold a piece of black plastic inside the hemisphere for the pupil and paint the iris onto the back surface of the hemisphere. Other more realistic conventional eyes are made from blown glass and have a concave surface on the backside of the hemisphere in which a pupil and an iris are painted. These types of eyes are commonly used in the taxidermy industry because of their realism. However, these eyes are not practical for use in the doll industry because they are not produced in high volumes and they are too expensive. Glass also presents a safety problem in the toy industry.
As just illustrated, technologies exist that would meet customers demands for more realistic doll eyes. However, these technologies cannot be immediately adapted to meet customer demands because of other constraints placed on the industry by customers. One of the most important constraints placed on the industry by customers is cost. Therefore, even though technologies may exist to meet customer demands, those technologies cannot be applied to this industry until they have adapted in such a way as to be more cost effective. Two factors that have direct bearing on the cost of implementing new technologies are the cost of raw products used with that technology and the quantity of finished product that the technology can produce. If a new process utilizes expensive raw products, the finished product of that product will also be expensive. Additionally, if a new process cannot produce a finished product in a high volume the finished product will be more expensive. These two cost factors tend to have a direct relationship. For example, as discussed above, very expensive eyes that have a realistic look have been developed in the taxidermy industry. These eyes, however, tend to use expensive raw products such as glass. Therefore, they are produced in low quantities.
Due to the cost constraints mentioned above, the development of the doll eye itself seems to have reached a plateau. Recent attempts to increase the realism of dolls"" eyes have focused on adding additional structure around the eye such as eyelids and eyelashes. One example of an eye with eyelashes is shown in FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,442 issued to Samo. This patent is illustrative of the problems associated with separately added features, such as eyelids and eyelashes. As shown in the figure, the eyelashes are separately formed and attached to the eye through secondary operations. These secondary operations are generally expensive and labor intensive. Additionally, current processes, such as those illustrated in Samo, are relatively expensive because they require additional parts that need to manufactured, stored, and assembled. Other conventional eyes also have separately molded lids that either attach to the eye in a separate operation or that wrap around the eye. These eyes, like the eyes of Samo, are problematic because they increase the part count of the doll and the number of production operations, both of which are costly.
In light of the problems and limitations of the prior art described above, a need exists for a one-piece molded eyeball and lid that is highly adaptable to different types of dolls, that is low cost but yet produces high quality eyes, that has a reduced part count, and that can be produced in a high volume. Each embodiment of the present invention achieves one or more of these results.
The artificial eye suitable for use in creatures and dolls according to some embodiments of the present invention has a one-piece eyeball and lid that are integrally molded. The integrally molded eye and lid of the present invention reduces the part count of the eye assembly when compared to conventional two-piece eye/lid combinations, which lowers the cost of production by eliminating high cost, labor intensive secondary operations. Furthermore, the process used to create these high-quality artificial eyeballs is a high volume, low cost operation.
One embodiment of the present invention comprises a transparent bowl-shaped member, a three-dimensional border member partially surrounding and unitary with the bowl-shaped member, and an ellipsoidal member visible through the bowl-shaped member. The bowl-shaped member of this embodiment has a convex surface and a concave surface. This combination of surfaces allows the bowl-shaped member to resemble an eyeball in a more realistic manner. Also, the three-dimensional border member is geometrically similar to an eyelid. As previously mentioned, the eyelid is integrally molded with the bowl-shaped member and unitary with the bowl-shaped member. In the described embodiments, the eyelid is textured like skin to appear more realistic. Finally, the ellipsoidal member of this embodiment is intended to represent a pupil. Thus, this combination of a transparent bowl-shaped member, a three-dimensional border member, and an ellipsoidal member, provides a high-quality eye that can be produced in high volume, at a low cost, and with a reduced part count compared to conventional eyes. Furthermore, as will be discussed in greater detail below, the eye of the present invention is highly adaptable for different uses.
Some embodiments of the present invention also utilize an iris-like member adjacent the concave surface of the bowl-shaped member. This iris-like member can be either a two-dimensional figure, e.g., paint or application of an emblem, depicted on the concave surface or a three-dimensional object insert molded within the bowl-shaped member. Selection between the above two options will be determined in part by the acceptable cost of the final product and the desired look of the final product.
In other embodiments of the present invention, the ellipsoidal member can have multiple configurations. For example, much like the iris-like member, this ellipsoidal member can be a two-dimensional figure depicted on the concave surface. Depending on cost constraints, the ellipsoidal member can be a three-dimensional object insert molded within the bowl-shaped member.
In yet further embodiments, the artificial eye is provided with an attachment member to attach the artificial eye to the doll. The attachment member has a surface that mates with the eyeball and a mounting post for mounting the eye on the doll. The attachment member has an alignment member such as a mating male-female coupling that can provide proper alignment of the eye on the attachment member.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention, together with the organization and operation thereof, will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like elements have like numerals throughout the drawings.